


The McAvoy’s in Quarantine

by mackenziemchale



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: Charlotte & Alex McAvoy, F/M, Fluff, Love, Post S3, Post Series, Romance, lots of cuteness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:27:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23809855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mackenziemchale/pseuds/mackenziemchale
Summary: She couldn’t take anymore of listening to depressing report after depressing report. It was enough that they had to do that for News Night everyday, she didn’t need more of it from their competitors.
Relationships: Will McAvoy/MacKenzie McHale
Comments: 10
Kudos: 10





	The McAvoy’s in Quarantine

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by both bashert’s and mettespo’s one shots of Will & Mac + their family in quarantine. Highly recommend reading both of their works because they’re fantastic.
> 
> Also a big thank you to my friend Juju who beta’d this for me and helped out, alongside another friend who also writes for the newsroom, whatkindofday, with choosing the name of their son.

“It seems that New York is quickly becoming the epicenter of the Coronavirus outbreak in the United States” Mackenzie hears from the television as she walks into the living room.

Will was sitting on their couch, his eyes glued to the screen as CNN played on the tv. He was still in the same place she had left him earlier when she went to help Charlotte with her online school. With the schools being closed, they decided to set up lessons online and Mackenzie had spent the last hour helping their six year old daughter with her school work. Thankfully, first graders weren’t doing anything that was too difficult.

“Billy enough of watching these reports” she insists as she walks over to him.

He shrugs, “I’m just watching to see what the competition is talking about.”

Mac rolls her eyes, knowing that wasn’t true. It wasn’t that he didn’t watch their competitors on a regular work day, but it usually was never this much. She knew he was worried about how fast the virus was spreading, especially because he was in the high risk category. 

She was worried too, but she couldn’t take anymore of listening to depressing report after depressing report. It was enough that they had to do that for  _ News Night _ everyday, she didn’t need more of it from their competitors. 

Once Mac reaches him, she grabs the remote from the table by the couch and turns the tv off. 

“Aw hey c’mon…” Will complains.

Mac sets the remote aside and grabs hold of her husband's hand, “we’re going to do something that doesn’t involve the news for a little while. We’ve got two hours until our first rundown meeting.” She then begins to pull him off the couch and in the direction of the kitchen. 

“What are we doing?” he asks as he gets up and begins to follow into their kitchen. 

She flips on the kitchen light switch and turns to him, “we’re going to bake some cookies” she says with a smile. 

⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀

──────────────────────────────────────

⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀  ⠀⠀⠀

Will watches as his wife begins to gather up ingredients for cookies, “I don’t know about this honey, I’m not really a baker. I mean I can cook a pretty juicy steak and whatnot but baking? Not something I’ve really dabbled in.”

She places down the ingredients on the counter then grabs the stand mixers and plugs it in. “Chocolate chip cookies are fairly easy, plus you can measure ingredients can’t you?” 

He looks at the counter and shrugs, “I guess so.”

Mac nods and hands him the butter, “I need a cup of this softened. Put it in the microwave for at least ten seconds and that should be enough” she says as she begins to measure out the flour. 

It wasn't even ten minutes later before the chaos began and Will was chasing Mackenzie around their house with a handful of flour. It started with her throwing a small handful in his face as a way to get him to laugh and take his mind off of the current state of the world. 

Instead of laughing he decided he wanted revenge which led them to their current state, Mac running as fast as she could from him. Every time he’d get close she’d squeal and exclaim “noo!!” 

Eventually the two end up back where they started in the kitchen and Will pins her against one of the counters. Her attempts to squirm her way out fail and Will laughs, “I’ve got you now you rascal. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“Just get it over with” She whines in an over dramatic tone and closes her eyes. 

Will blows the handful of flour onto her face and Mac scrunches up her nose as it hits her. It wasn’t much flour, just enough to cover most of her face. 

When she opens her eyes again she gets a better look at his own face which was also covered in flour and she laughs, “you look ridiculous.”

He chuckles and smiles, “so do you.” His hold on her against the counter loosens and arm comes around her as both of hers come around his neck.

They meet halfway in a soft, slow kiss only to be interrupted seconds later by the sounds of “ewwww!” coming from both of their children.

Breaking apart, Mac looks over at the entrance to the kitchen and sees Charlotte and Alexander standing there. She was covering her little brother's eyes as they stood together. 

Mac bites down on her bottom lip, holding back a smile and a laugh. She then looks back up at Will, who can’t hold back his smile. They both knew how silly they had been acting and it was a good thing their kids hadn’t caught them until now. Chasing one another around the house wasn’t the best example to set. 

He turns his head in the direction of their kids, “Charlie, Alex, one day you’ll understand what it’s like to be in love.” He then steps back and gets both of them wet washcloths to wipe their faces off. 

“Ewww nooo boys have cooties” Charlie replies and shakes her head.

Alex repeats “cooooties” after his sister, even though he didn’t really know what it meant. He just liked to mirror whatever his big sister did. 

Mac laughs and goes over to her little ones. She kneels down to the level, “you’re right Charlie, boys have cooties, most of them anyway.”

“Hey I do not have cooties!” she hears Will say from the counter, where he was cleaning up the little mess they made.

Charlie gives her a questioning look, “does daddy have cooties?”

Mac looks back at her husband and smiles as she watches as he starts to pour the ingredients they had already measured out into the stand mixer. She turns back to her daughter and shakes her head, “no daddy doesn’t have cooties. He’s one of the few boys who don’t.”

Charlie nods at that, seeming to be satisfied with that answer. It didn’t take too much to convince a six year old of what she was saying was true. 

“Mummy and daddy were about to make cookies, do my sweet peas wanna help?”

They both exclaim “yes!” in unison and Mac smiles. Standing up, she takes the hands of both of their children and walks with them over to where Will was standing. “Looks like we’ve got some helpers.”

Will turns and smiles, “good. Charlie you can help your mom with measuring the rest of the ingredients and Alex and I will start scooping out the cookies once the dough is ready.”

Mac nods and pulls up one of the barstools next to her for Charlie to sit on. Will grabs one too but Alex instead has to stand on his chair, which meant Will was standing behind him the entire time just in case.

It wasn’t long until they were all working together as a family. Charlie and Mac had mixed all of the ingredients together. While doing that, Will guided Alex as they prepped the baking sheet with parchment paper so the cookies would come off easier. 

Eventually, they all work together on getting the cookies put onto two sheets and Will puts both in the oven. He smiles and he puts an arm around Mac as they watch their kids eat the leftover cookie dough from the bowl. He was happy she pulled him into the kitchen to bake, it made his day a lot better than where it had been when it started.

⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀

──────────────────────────────────────

⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀  ⠀⠀⠀

“We should really pay the people who keep the studio running a lot more,” Will says as he struggles to get one of the tripods for the camera set up. “Damn it” he mutters as one side of the tripod collapses back toward the ground again. 

Mac was putting on her mic pack while watching him struggle, “I agree” she then adjusts her headset and leaves it around her neck for now. “Do you need some help?”

The show was on in less than fifteen minutes and they were in their shared office, getting set up. Before the virus had reached the United States, Mac had a feeling that things were going to get bad so she made sure to bring some extra equipment home. It took some convincing of the guys in charge of the equipment room since they all thought she was overreacting, but eventually it worked. It was a little over a week later when the virus started to spread and soon enough they were ordered to stay home. 

She knew that since they were a news network, they were definitely still essential but there was no way she was letting anyone show up to work. The second things started picking up in New York, she reduced the number of employees allowed in the office. Now she didn’t want anyone there unless it was absolutely crucial. 

At first, Will had protested, not because he didn’t believe in the seriousness of the virus but because he thought they could still put on a show if it was just the two of them at the studio. “You don’t know if the virus has already made its way into the newsroom. There’s no way that’s happening, I’m not risking bringing it home to our kids. We’ll do the news from home” Mac remembered insisting. 

So far, it was working. They turned their shared office into a make-shift studio and were still doing what mattered most, giving the people the facts. 

“No no I’ve got this” Will insists and continues trying to set up the tripod. 

Mac shakes her head and lets him carry on being stubborn. “Charlie, sweetheart, could you bring mummy her notepad?” 

That was another thing, Charlotte and Alex were with them in the office since it was the only way of keeping an eye on both of them during the show. Their bedtimes weren’t until nine thirty, so Mac set up a little area for them to play in while Will was on air.

It was somewhat difficult to balance producing him while making sure the kids didn’t get too rowdy or distract Will. So far, it wasn’t too bad. They had only had a few incidents where the kids were too loud while playing but nothing big. 

Charlotte brings over Mac’s notebook, “thank you princess,” she smiles as she takes the notepad and looks over everything she had down for the show. A lot of it was on the virus, but there were other reports to break it up so that the audience wouldn’t be too overwhelmed with hearing about it.

As she’s reading over her notes, she hears Will exclaim, “Damn it!” as the tripod falls to the ground.

“William Duncan McAvoy!” Mackenzie scolds like he was one of their children for cussing. 

The commotion makes both children stop what they were doing and stare up at their parents in confusion.

“Uhh… pretend like you didn’t hear that kids, daddy didn’t mean to say it.”

Mac goes over to him and shakes her head as she sets up the tripod, never had she seen someone struggle so much with one. She then grabs the camera from her desk and gets it situated on top of the tripod, “let me handle getting the camera on and ready to go, you just go sit and look pretty.”

“You’re not mad at me are you?” he questions.

“No, but you need to watch your mouth around our six and four year old. I really don’t want Alex to start repeating after you like he did before.” That time though it wasn’t a cuss word, he’d heard Will say ‘shut up’ and repeated it over and over for at least a day. 

He nods and heads over to the desk they had set up for him to be at during the show. Mac meanwhile finishes setting up the camera and making sure it was at the right height and angle.

Ten minutes later, Will was on the air. Things were running smoothly, Mac was producing and had Jim on the line through Skype while Will anchored. Jim was keeping her updated on any changes and whatever else she needed. Mac also was keeping an eye on both Charlie and Alex as they played with their toys.

All was well for the majority of the show, now they were closing in on the very last of it. Things were good, until Mac turned her back for just two seconds to take down notes from Jim. Will was talking and she figured she could take a second to listen to Jim, however as she turns her attention back to Will she gasps as she sees Alex just off to Will’s right dressed in a little suit mimicking everything his father was doing.

Charlie and Alex would play dress up sometimes and this must’ve been one of those times. She covers her mouth to hold back a laugh, he looked exactly like Will. 

As Mac was about to step out to grab him, Will notices and laughs as he sees Alex. Will picks up the four year old, “looks like I have a surprise co-anchor this evening, my son Alex McAvoy.”

Alex waves to the camera, “hi!” he smiles wide, he looked almost to be the spitting image of his father but had some of Mackenzie’s features that made him not quite his twin. 

“Alex, I was just telling everyone at home about social distancing. Can you say social distancing?”

“So-cal di-tan-ing” the four year old says with a smile as he looks up at his father.

Will chuckles, “that’s close enough” and in a rare on camera moment he gives a smile. 

He then looks up over the camera and at Mac who was watching with a smile on her face. She couldn’t believe Alex had gone out there and imitated Will like that and it was one of the most adorable things she’d ever seen. 

“While we’re here, why not introduce everyone to the rest of the McAvoy family?” Will glances over at his daughter who was watching them from the area she and Alex were playing in across the room. “Charlie, Mac,” he glances back at his wife, “come on over.”

This wasn’t something he had thought of doing before but why not cease the opportunity? Charlotte walks over first and Will pats his other leg for her to sit with him and Alex. Once she’s settled into his lap he looks back at the camera, “this is my daughter Charlotte or as we like to call her, Charlie.”

Charlie turns her head away from the camera, suddenly camera shy. She much rather preferred to be off camera just like her mom. Will looks down at his daughter who had hidden her face away in the jacket of his suit. “C’mon Charlie, it’s alright just pretend like this is like when mom takes out her phone and films us. The audience isn’t even there, it’s just the four of us” he encourages.

That brings her out from her hiding and she looks past the camera at Mac, who nods “it’s just us Charlie” she assures. 

Charlotte looks at the camera this time then gives her adorable smile and waves, “hi!”

Will can’t help but smile again and press a kiss to his daughter’s head, “see? that wasn’t so bad.”

Once again Will looks to Mac, “you’re the last up honey, come say hello.”

She shakes her head and then presses the button to her mic pack, stepping back from the camera as she begins to talk into her mic, “you take this opportunity with the kids, I’m just here to produce.” 

Mac figured that would work, there was no reason for her to come out but he doesn’t take no for an answer. “Ah come on you’re the last of the McAvoy’s. Plus, I’m sure the audience has been dying to see the woman who managed to win over the cold hearted Will McAvoy.”

She looks over at him and notices he was using his pouty eyes on her, only something that would be caught if the viewers were watching closely. “Oh alright” Mac gives in and grabs the wheeled chair from her desk. Bringing it over, she takes a seat in it and Will pulls her in closer to be in frame and before he lets her say hello to the audience, he gives her a quick kiss. 

“Ewww” Charlie says below them.

The two break apart, sharing a small laugh as they recall the same incident happening this morning.

Mac stares at her husband for a moment, finding herself falling into a trance and forgetting for just a second that there was an audience of who knew how many people watching them.

“Darling…”

“Hmm?”

“We’re still on the air,” he says, a bit quieter.

“Oh!” Mac jumps and turns her chair in the direction of the camera, her cheeks filling with a red color from getting caught up in the moment.

“Sorry about that, hi everyone I’m Mackenzie McHale. I used to be Will’s executive producer and now I’m the president of ACN.” Mac looks up at him, presses a hand on his knee, “He’s right, I did manage to win over the cold hearted Will McAvoy and believe me, I still don’t know how” she says as she looks back at the camera.

Will looks over at her as if she were an angel, a gift to the world, and like she was absolutely everything to him. (She definitely was).

He then turns back to the camera, “there you have it, the McAvoy clan.” He then peers at the clock on the wall and notices that the show was just about to end.

“Well family of mine, the show is about to wrap up, do you have anything else you would like to say?”

“My daddy is the best news anchor ever!” Charlotte exclaims and smiles a wide toothy grin. 

“Yeah!!” Alex chimes in happily.

Will can only laugh at that and Mac gives a smile at her children’s love for their dad. 

“What about you dear, anything else to add?”

Mac looks back over at the camera, “just that I hope everyone at home is staying healthy and is taking care of themselves and others around them. Please remember to stay home unless you are an essential worker. To any essential worker out there, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all you are doing to keep this country running.”

Will turns his attention back to the camera after she finishes and nods, “I don’t think I could have said it better myself. Terry Smith is coming up right now with  _ The Capitol Report _ from Washington. I’m Will McAvoy, goodnight.”

⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀

──────────────────────────────────────

⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀  ⠀⠀⠀

Mac runs her fingers through Will’s hair as he lays with his head in her lap. It was the next morning and all was calm in the McAvoy household, the television was playing at a moderate volume— just loud enough to hear what was being said. Meanwhile, Charlie and Alex were quietly playing together on the floor.

Will and Mac were watching a movie he had put on while enjoying each other’s company. Well, Will was watching the movie, whatever movie it was, Mac was hardly paying attention to it. She was purely enjoying the company of her husband and listening to the sounds of their kids playing.

Her phone dings on the table next to the couch and Mac reaches over to grab it, wondering who would be bothering her on a Saturday morning. 

It was Jim.

**Have you seen what everyone is saying about last night’s show?**

She hadn’t, she had no clue what he was talking about. Then again, Mac usually wasn’t one who paid attention to what everyone was saying about the show. 

**No, why? Please tell me it’s not bad.**

Mac doesn’t mention the text from Jim to Will right away, wanting to make sure whatever it was wasn’t something that would totally bum him out.

It was only a few minutes later that Jim replied,

**Twitter has gone crazy, Will’s trending which basically means a lot of people are talking about him. They’re all freaking out over Will showing his softer side on the show.**

Before she could reply, Jim was following up his text with some tweets that he had grabbed screenshots of. One of the screenshots was that of Will’s name under the “trending” tab. 

“Oh my god” Mac says, she honestly couldn’t believe he was trending because of this.

“What is it? Who texted?” Will questions. He had noticed she had been texting someone and didn’t know if it was someone from the bullpen. 

Mac pulls up the picture on her phone from Jim that showed Will was trending and shows it to him, “apparently Twitter is freaking out that you showed a softer side on the show last night. You’re trending.”

“Trending?” Will questions as he sits up to get a better look at the photo. He didn’t have the slightest clue what that was, he wasn’t exactly tech savvy. (Hence why he was so shocked when he first learned he had a blog).

“It means that a lot of people are talking about you.”

“What are they saying?”

Mac brings up a screenshot of one tweet Jim had sent, “o-m-g, Will McAvoy with his kids is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Heart-eye emoji, heart-eye emoji.”

She doesn’t stop with the first one, she pulls up another and begins reading, “I want someone who looks at me the way Will McAvoy looks at Mackenzie McHale like she’s his world. Crying emoji, heart-eye emoji.” Mac smiles as she finishes reading that one and looks at the picture that was attached to the tweet of Will looking at her like she was the only star in the sky. “I think that one is my favorite,” she adds.

“Huh, well I guess there goes my dreams of being like Kronkite and Murrow” Will half jokes.

Mac sets aside her phone for now, knowing she could reply to Jim later. She then crawls into his lap, “some of us like the softer side of Will McAvoy.”

“Clearly lots of people on Twitter like it,” he replies, purposely not acknowledging that she meant herself.

“Billy…” Mac trails off and gives him a pout.

“Ah c’mon I was just giving you hell.”

Before she can get a word out in protest of his actions, Will places two fingers under her chin and pulls her in for a kiss.

Breaking away, he looks past his wife and down to the floor at their kids, “there is one good thing that has come out of this whole quarantine thing.”

A hand comes up to his chest and she rubs it slowly, “what’s that?”

“We have all this time to spend together and with the kids. Don’t get me wrong, I know some days we want to kill each other but that’s just a regular day for us sometimes.”

That earns a soft laugh from Mac and she nods, “that’s true.” 

Mackenzie turns and looks down at their children for a moment, a smile coming to her face. She then turns back to Will and gazes lovingly into his eyes, knowing she didn’t have to say what they both felt. Instead of using her words, she leans in again for another, longer kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly I wasn’t sure if I was going to do a quarantine one shot or not, but then I read a few and decided why not? It’s nice to think about what your favorite characters would be going through during this time and how they’d handle it. 
> 
> Also, what do we think of the name Alexander for their son? I struggled between choosing names for him but I think it fits!
> 
> As always, thank you so much for taking the time to read this story. Feel free to leave a kudos and any feedback because it’s always appreciated. Until next time ❤️


End file.
